An np‐control chart for inspection errors and repeated classifications

The np‐control chart has been used to monitor the conforming fraction in process production, and it is assumed that no classification errors occur during the inspection process. Increases in the sample size and/or the number of repeated classifications of the inspected items can reduce the impact of the classification errors. In this paper, an np ‐control chart is proposed, and the monitored statistics are based on the results of independent repeated classifications with classification errors during the inspection process. The aim of the proposed control chart is to have the same performance as a control chart without classification errors. Numerical examples illustrate the proposal. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Flexible and Generalized Exponentially Weighted Moving Average Control Chart for Count Data

The Conway–Maxwell–Poisson distribution can be used to model under‐dispersed or over‐dispersed count data. This study proposes a flexible and generalized attribute exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA), namely GEWMA, control chart for monitoring count data. The proposed EWMA chart is based on the Conway–Maxwell–Poisson distribution. The performance of the proposed chart is evaluated in terms of run length (RL) characteristics such as average RL, median RL, and standard deviation of the RL distribution. The average RL of the proposed GEWMA chart is compared with Sellers chart. The sensitivity of the standard Poisson EWMA (PEWMA) chart is also studied and compared with the proposed GEWMA chart for under‐dispersed or over‐dispersed data. It has been observed that the PEWMA chart is very sensitive for under‐dispersed or over‐dispersed data while the proposed GEWMA is very robust. Finally, the generalization of the proposed chart to the Bernoulli EWMA, PEWMA, and geometric EWMA charts is also studied using someone simulated data sets. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Comparison of Normal Approximation Rules for Attribute Control Charts

Control charts, known for more than 80 years, have been important tools for business and industrial manufactures. Among many different types of control charts, the attribute control chart (np‐chart or p‐chart) is one of the most popular methods to monitor the number of observed defects in products, such as semiconductor chips, automobile engines, and loan applications. The attribute control chart requires that the sample size n is sufficiently large and the defect rate p is not too small so that the normal approximation to the binomial works well. Some rules for the required values for n and p are available in the textbooks of quality control and mathematical statistics. However, these rules are considerably different, and hence, it is less clear which rule is most appropriate in practical applications. In this paper, we perform a comparison of five frequently used rules for n and p required for the normal approximation to the binomial. With this result, we also refine the existing rules to develop a new rule that has a reliable performance. Datasets are analyzed for illustration. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new non‐parametric CUSUM mean chart

Not all data in practice came from a process with normal distribution. When the process distribution is non‐normal or unknown, the commonly used Shewhart control charts are not suitable. In this paper, a new non‐parametric CUSUM Mean Chart is proposed to monitor the possible small mean shifts in the process. The sampling properties of the new monitoring statistics are examined and the average run lengths of the proposed chart are examined. Two numerical examples are used to illustrate the proposed chart and compare with the two existing charts, assuming normality and Beta distribution, respectively. The CUSUM Mean Chart showed better detection ability than those two charts in monitoring and detecting small process mean shifts. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Detecting mean increases in zero truncated INAR(1) processes

Count data with zero truncation are common in the production process. It's essential to monitor these data during production flow, production quality control and market management. Most of the previous studies were based on the independent observations assumption. In fact, serial dependence of count data which significantly affects the performance of the control charts exists extensively in practice. Motivated by this, several important first-order integer-valued autoregressive time series processes are used to model the autocorrelated count data with zero truncation. We investigate the effectiveness of three following charts, the combined jumps chart, the exponentially weighted moving average chart and the cumulative sum chart, to detect the upward shifts of the process mean based on these models. A bivariate Markov chain approach could be used to obtain the average run length of these charts. Design recommendations for achieving robustness are provided based on the computation study. An application to product quality complaints data is presented to demonstrate good performances of the charts.     

A generally weighted moving average control chart for zero-inflated Poisson processes

Zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model is very useful in high-yield processes where an excessive number of zero observations exist. This model can be viewed as an extension of the standard Poisson distribution. In this paper, a one-sided generally weighted moving average (GWMA) control chart is proposed for monitoring upward shifts in the two parameters of a ZIP process (regarded as ZIP-GWMA chart). The design parameters of the proposed chart are provided, and through a simulation study, it is shown that the ZIP-GWMA performs better than the existing control charts under shifts in both parameters. Moreover, an illustrative example is presented to display the application of the proposed chart on practitioners.     

Distribution-free triple EWMA control chart for monitoring the process location using the Wilcoxon rank-sum statistic with fast initial response feature

The exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart is a memory-type chart known to be more efficient in detecting small and moderate shifts in the process parameter. The double EWMA (DEWMA) chart is an extension of the EWMA chart that is more effective than the latter in the detection of small-to-moderate shifts. This paper proposes a new distribution-free (or nonparametric) triple EWMA (TEWMA) control chart based on the Wilcoxon rank-sum (W) statistic to improve the detection ability in the process location parameter. Moreover, a new fast initial response (FIR) feature is added to further improve the sensitivity of the new TEWMA chart. The performance of the proposed TEWMA chart with and without FIR features is compared to those of the existing EWMA and DEWMA W charts. It is observed that the TEWMA chart with and without FIR features is superior to the competing charts in most situations. A real-life illustration is provided to show the application and implementation of the new chart.     

Monitoring of zero-inflated Poisson processes with EWMA and DEWMA control charts

The zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) distribution is an extension of the ordinary Poisson distribution and is used to model count data with an excessive number of zeros. In ZIP models, it is assumed that random shocks occur with probability p, and upon the occurrence of random shock, the number of nonconformities in a product follows the Poisson distribution with parameter λ. In this article, we study in more detail the exponentially weighted moving average control chart based on the ZIP distribution (regarded as ZIP-EWMA) and we also propose a double EWMA chart with an upper time-varying control limit to monitor ZIP processes (regarded as ZIP-DEWMA chart). The two charts are studied to detect upward shifts not only in each parameter individually but also in both parameters simultaneously. The steady-state performance and the performance with estimated parameters are also investigated. The performance of the two charts has been evaluated in terms of the average and standard deviation of the run length, and compared with Shewhart-type and CUSUM schemes for ZIP distribution, it is shown that the proposed chart is very effective especially in detecting shifts in p when λ remains in control (IC) and in both parameters simultaneously. Finally, one real example is given to display the application of the ZIP charts on practitioners.     

Use of ranked set sampling in nonparametric control charts

Control charts are widely used to identify changes in a production process. Nonparametric or distribution-free charts can be useful when there is a lack of underlying process distribution. A nonparametric exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart based on sign test using ranked set sampling (RSS) is proposed to monitor the possible small shifts in the process mean. The performance of the proposed chart is evaluated in terms of average run length, median run length, and standard deviation of the run length distribution. It has been observed that the proposed version of the EWMA sign chart, using RSS shows better detection ability than that version of the EWMA sign chart and the parametric EWMA control chart using simple random sampling scheme. An application with real data-set is also provided to explain the proposal for practical considerations.     

Bayesian EWMA control chart with measurement error under different loss functions

This paper presents the Bayesian EWMA control chart under two different loss functions (i) squared error loss function (SELF) and (ii) linex loss function (LLF) in the presence of measurement error (ME). We take posterior and posterior predictive distribution under the conjugate prior. We used a linear covariate model in the existence of ME to evaluate the control chart. We also studied the effects of multiple measurements and linear increasing variance methods in the existence of the ME. The average run length and standard deviation of run length are used to measure the performance of the Bayesian EWMA control chart with ME. We conducted the Monte Carlo simulation study to evaluate the performance of Bayesian EWMA control chart with ME. A real-life data example is also presented to demonstrate the application of the control chart.     

Delay in Statistical Control of Systems with Wear

The target of statistical process control is to identify changes in the behavior of controlled process as quickly as possible. Therefore, as a quality measure of control charts, we use characteristics which quantify the delay between the occurrence of change and its identification by the control chart. The average run length is a commonly used characteristic which does not reflect a real situation. A new characteristic is suggested which is computed in the case of progressive wearing out of the system. We assume several types of progression. The Markov chain approach is used for computation of average delay. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal one- and two-sided adaptive EWMA scheme for monitoring Poisson count data

The Poisson distribution assumption often arises in several industrial applications for modeling defects or nonconformities. In this work, we investigate the one- and two-sided performance of a new adaptive EWMA (exponentially weighted moving average)-type chart for monitoring Poisson count data. An appropriate discrete-state Markov chain technique is provided to compute the exact ARL (average run length) properties. Moreover, comparative studies are conducted to demonstrate the higher sensitivity of the proposed chart in the detection of shifts with various magnitudes. Advices on how to select the appropriate chart parameters are provided and an illustrative numerical example is proposed.     

The performance of EWMA median and CUSUM median control charts for a normal process with measurement errors

Measurement error is often occurred in statistical process control. The effect of a linearly covariate error model on the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) median and cumulative sum (CUSUM) median charts is investigated. The results indicate that the EWMA median and CUSUM median charts are significantly affected in the presence of measurement errors. We compared the performance of the EWMA median and CUSUM median charts by using Markov chain method in the average run length and the standard deviation of the run length. We concluded that the CUSUM median chart for small shifts and the EWMA median chart for larger shifts are recommended. Two examples are provided to illustrate the application of the EWMA and CUSUM median charts with measurement errors.     

A new approach to setting control limits of cumulative count of conforming charts for high‐yield processes

Cumulative count of conforming (CCC‐r) charts are usually used to monitor non‐conforming fraction p in high‐yield processes. Existing approaches to setting the control limits may cause non‐maximal or biased in‐control average run length (ARL). Non‐maximal in‐control ARL implies that the chart might not quickly detect the upward shift of p from its nominal value p₀. On the other hand, biased in‐control ARL means that both the in‐control and out‐of‐control ARLs are inflated. This paper develops a new approach to setting control limits for CCC‐r charts with near‐maximal and near‐unbiased in‐control ARL. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is effective in terms of the maximization and unbiasedness of in‐control ARL. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effective Control Charts for Monitoring the NGINAR(1) Process

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the control of autocorrelated count data. Existing results focus on the Poisson integer‐valued autoregressive (INAR) process, but this process cannot deal with overdispersion (variance is greater than mean), which is a common phenomenon in count data. We propose to control the autocorrelated count data based on a new geometric INAR (NGINAR) process, which is an alternative to the Poisson one. In this paper, we use the combined jumps chart, the cumulative sum chart, and the combined exponentially weighted moving average chart to detect the shift of parameters in the process. We compare the performance of these charts for the case of an underlying NGINAR(1) process in terms of the average run lengths. One real example is presented to demonstrate good performances of the charts. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monitoring the Ratio of Two Normal Variables Using EWMA Type Control Charts

In many fields, there is the need to monitor quality characteristics defined as the ratio of two random variables. The design and implementation of control charts directly monitoring the ratio stability is required for the continuous surveillance of these quality characteristics. In this paper, we propose two one‐sided exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts with subgroups having sample size n > 1 to monitor the ratio of two normal random variables. The optimal EWMA smoothing constants, control limits, and ARLs have been computed for different values of the in‐control ratio and correlation between the variables and are shown in several figures and tables to discuss the statistical performance of the proposed one‐sided EWMA charts. Both deterministic and random shift sizes have been considered to test the two one‐sided EWMA charts' sensitivity. The obtained results show that the proposed one‐sided EWMA control charts are more sensitive to process shifts than other charts already proposed in the literature. The practical application of the proposed control schemes is discussed with an illustrative example. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On autoregressive model selection for the exponentially weighted moving average control chart of residuals in monitoring the mean of autocorrelated processes

With the development of automation technologies, data can be collected in a high frequency, easily causing autocorrelation phenomena. Control charts of residuals have been used as a good way to monitor autocorrelated processes. The residuals have been often computed based on autoregressive (AR) models whose building needs much experience. Data have been assumed to be first-order autocorrelated, and first-order autoregressive (AR(1) ) models have been employed to obtain residuals. But for a p th-order autocorrelated process, how the AR(1) model affects the performance of the control chart of residuals remains unknown. In this paper, the control chart of exponentially weighted moving average of residuals (EWMA-R) is used to monitor the p th-order autocorrelated process. Taking the mean and standard deviation of run length as performance indicators, two types of EWMA-R control charts, with their residuals obtained from the p th-order autoregressive AR(p) and AR(1) models, respectively, are compared. The results of the numerical experiment show that for detecting small mean shifts, EWMA-R control charts based on AR(1) models outperform ones based on AR(p) models, whereas for detecting large shifts, they are sometimes slightly worse. A practical application is used to give a recommendation that a large number of samples are necessary for determining an EWMA-R control chart before using it.     

Practitioner advice: ERLDAT–A web-based tool to design and analyze EWMA control charts

The performance of a control chart is completely characterized by its run length distribution. Quality practitioners usually do not have access to the run length distribution but rely on the average run length (ARL) to design and evaluate the performance of an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart. This article presents a web-based tool that provides users easy access to the Phase 2 (online or monitoring phase) run length distribution for a two-sided EWMA control chart with known parameters. The web-based tool calculates the run length distribution, percentiles of the run length distribution, as well as the mean (ARL) and variance (VRL) of the run length distribution. Additional functionality of the web-based tool includes plotting the run length distribution functions, building tables of the quantiles of the run length distribution, finding the smoothing parameter (λ) for an EWMA control chart for fixed control limit that satisfies ARL, VRL or percentile performance, and finding the control chart limit (k) for an EWMA control chart that satisfies ARL, VRL, or percentile performance. This tool and these techniques enable quality practitioners to better design and evaluate EWMA control charts.     

An EWMA signed ranks control chart with reliable run length performances

During the design phase of a control chart, the determination of its exact run length properties plays a vital role for its optimal operation. Markov chain or integral equation methods have been extensively applied in the design phase of conventional control charts. However, for distribution-free schemes, due to the discrete nature of the statistics being used (such as the sign or the Wilcoxon signed rank statistics, for instance), it is impossible to accurately compute their run length properties. In this work, a modified distribution-free phase II exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA)-type chart based on the Wilcoxon signed rank statistic is considered and its exact run length properties are discussed. A continuous transformation of the Wilcoxon signed rank statistic, combined with the classical Markov chain method, is used for the determination of the average run length in the in- and out-of control cases. Moreover, its exact performance is derived without any knowledge of the distribution of sample observations. Finally, an illustrative example is provided showing the practical implementation of our proposed chart.     

Novel design of composite generally weighted moving average and cumulative sum charts

The cumulative sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts are popular statistical tools to improve the performance of the Shewhart chart in detecting small process shifts. In this study, we propose the mixed generally weighted moving average (GWMA)‐CUSUM chart and its reverse‐order CUSUM‐GWMA chart to enhance detection ability compared with existing counterparts. The simulation revealed that the mixed GWMA‐CUSUM and mixed CUSUM‐GWMA charts have the sensitivity to detect small process shifts and efficient structures compared with the mixed EWMA‐CUSUM and mixed CUSUM‐EWMA charts, respectively. Moreover, the mixed GWMA‐CUSUM chart with a large design parameter has robust performance, regardless of the high tail t distribution or right skewness gamma distribution.